brianr@tekig4.TEK.COM (Brian Rhodefer) (11/30/88)
Yes, the GVP controller boards will autoboot a completely FFS hard disk. And I have to say that, after I installed one, everything worked plenty peachy for a week. Currently, however, my Amiga often puts up a "Software error: task held" requester on power-up. Doing a Ctrl-A-A reset clears the requester, and evokes the familiar series of diagnostic colors on the screen. And it does indeed clear out the requester: this time, after the diagnostics complete, I get a Guru. Ctrl-A-Aing again, or clicking the left mouse button as requested finally brings up the `normal' (though I'm beginning to regard it as the `miraculous') AmigaDos & Workbench screen. Since none of these messages are meaningful to me, it's time once again for `Amiga Hypochondria', where I try to guess which of my `add-ons' is responsible. Is it the expansion ram? The Bridgeboard? The CMI Processor Accelerator? Hard disk not coming up-to-speed quickly enough? Bad keyboard timing (I've one of the `old' A2000 keyboards)? I've noticed a few scattered postings lately from people who similarly experience Gurus on system-powerup. In case adding to the `problem description' data is useful, my context is as follows: Hardware consists of A2000 with 2meg expansion ram, Bridgecard, CMI processor accelerator jumpered for `A1000 use' (old-style keyboard), and GVP 40Meg hard-card with autoboot ROMS. A Kickstart 1.3 Rom is installed in the A2000. I attempt to boot the system with DF0: empty. I was going to include a copy of my startup script in this posting, but (a) the errors/gurus happen before the script executes and (b), when I tried to duplicate the problem just now, by powering down for a minute and then powering back up, everything worked just swell. Oh well, "A watched program never crashes", as my grandmother used to say... I'm surprised. Usually, problems like this don't spontaneously go away until after you've performed some specific but completely irrelevant action, like opening the case and re-seating the hard-drive's LED connector. Though I've gotten accustomed enough to my Amiga that a cure isn't really required, I would certainly be grateful if one could be suggested. Thanking all and sundry for their time & patience, Brian Rhodefer ...!tektronix!tekig4!brianr